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If you have been on these boards long enough, you have seen (if not made) posts that decry the D&D economy as being "broken" because the poor, poor commoners could never afford anything because they only make 1 silver a day, and everything is just so terribly expensive, etc etc etc, right?  The only problem is that it just isn't true. The commoners make more than enough money to get by on, and even make enough money to save it for expensive purchases.  The following article will focus on the misconceptions of how the rules work, and will show an example of a "standard" commoner family, how much money said family makes in a week, and how much money they use in a week.

But, before we get into that, the linch pin in the "it’s broken!" argument is that commoners only make 1 sp a day.  In the majority of cases, I argue that this is not true.  The 1 sp a day salary is for completely unskilled, clueless laborers.  The ditch diggers or migrant day laborer types.  This is not what the majority of commoners will be.  Let’s look at the Commoner entry in the DMG, paying special attention to their skillpoints.  They get 2 skillpoints per level, with the standard x4 at level 1.  Now look at their class skills, and you'll notice that they have both Craft and Profession.  On top of this, like any other class, they get a feat at first level.  For the purposes of this article, the commoners in question will be assumed to have 8 skillpoints and 1 feat to spend.  Obviously, humans will have 9 points and 2 feats, but I'm going to work it as a generic so that it applies to everyone.  We can assume the humans spend their extra point and feat on personal things that don't contribute to their overall ability to survive day to day life (like a rank or two in Knowledge [Local]).

Now then, let us assume that the typical commoner family consists of 5 individuals; a mother, a father, a teenage son, a child daughter, and a baby.

Joe Commoner lives in a small village, and has a small farm out by the woods.  He built the main house himself, with help from his father as a youth when he was old enough to move out on his own.  They used wood harvested from the nearby forest, and did the work themselves, meaning the house was essentially free.  Joe learned how to farm from his father, and has been a farmer for as long as he can remember.  Mechanically, Joe is in his mid 30's, and is a 2nd level commoner.  He's not as fit as he was in his younger days, but he's a little wiser.  We will still assume that he has a +0 modifier to all of his stats though.

Jill Commoner is Joe's wife.  She helps her husband with the farming by working in the fields part of the day, and also does the cooking, cleaning, and mending of clothes, as well as watching after the children.  Mechanically, she is a first level commoner, also with +0 mods to all of her stats.

Billy Commoner is Joe's oldest child, a 15 year old boy that grew up much the same as Joe did, and will soon be old enough to start his own family, but for now is still helping dad around the family farm.  Billy is a first level commoner with +0 stat mods.

Susy Commoner is the middle child, and helps her mother with the household chores.  Susy is a 0th level commoner, and has only 2 skillpoints.

Baby Commoner is a baby, and gurgles a lot, but is too young to provide any meaningful contribution to the family's financial situation.

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As a D&D character, Joe has maxxed out his ranks in Profession (Farmer), and has also taken Skill Focus (Farming), for a total of +8 to his skill checks.  He also has 3 ranks in Craft (Woodworking), and 2 ranks in Knowledge (Local).

Jill Commoner has 2 ranks in Profession (Farmer), 2 ranks in Profession (Cook), 2 ranks in Craft (Clothing), and 2 ranks in Heal (for all the family's normal ailments).

Billy Commoner has 3 ranks in Profession (Farmer) that he learned from his father, Martial Weapon Proficiency (longbow), 2 ranks in Survival (he uses his bow to go hunting in the nearby woods), 2 ranks in Craft (woodworking), and 1 rank in Knowledge (Local).

Susy Commoner is too young to do much, but has 1 rank in both Profession (Cooking) and Craft (Clothing).

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Joe Commoner takes 10 on his Profession (Farmer) check, for a total of 18.  Jill and Billy both use Aid Other to help Joe with his check.  Jill has a 60% chance of getting her Aid Other to succeed, while Billy has a 65% chance of succeeding.  We'll be a bit conservative and say that, on average, one of them succeeds in giving Joe +2 to his checks, for a total of 20.  Since you earn half your check in gold per week, this means the family has a weekly income of 10 gp, which is substantially better than the 21 sp (or 2.1 gp) they would have gotten as unskilled labor.  The other skill ranks for the other family members do not factor into weekly income, and serve only to round them out and allow them to do things like carve their own wooden bowls, make their own clothes, etc.

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We will assume that Joe, Jill, and Billy each eat the equivalent of 1 common meal and 2 poor meals per day (5 sp per day, each), and that Susy eats the equivalent of 2 poor meals per day (2 sp per day), and that the baby does not eat enough to be worth factoring into this.

That means they eat, on average, 1.7 gp of food per day, as a family, for a total of 11.9 gp worth of food per week.  Whoops, that’s too much, as they only make 10 gp a week, right?  Wrong, that’s the price for if you are buying your meals from someone else.  Jill and Susy both have Profession (Cook) and make their own meals out of what they grow on the farm, plus whatever meat Billy brings home from when he goes hunting, meaning they are crafting their own meals, which means they pay half price, or 5.95 gp per week for food.  Let’s also assume that once per week Joe heads down to the village tavern for a mug of ale with the neighbors for 4 coppers, which brings it up to 5.99 gp per week.

So, the Commoner family is making 10 gp per week, on average, consuming 6 gp a week in food. That leaves 4 gp per week that can be spent on things like raw cloth for sewing clothes out of, assorted metal tools and implements from the blacksmith, or just squirreled away for a rainy day.

We'll assume there are 50 weeks a year (with a total of two weeks off for holidays and the like), that means our Commoner family can save upwards of 200 gp per year for luxuries, or the gods forbid, healing potions for injuries or sicknesses that are too severe for Jill to handle with her Heal skill.

Even without Aid Other, Joe would have a Take 10 check of 18 with his farming, meaning they would only lose out on 1 gp per week, which would still let him feed his family the same food, provide the same living conditions, and still be able to put away upwards of 150 gp per year, probably more because that would free Billy up to go hunting and gathering in the forest more often, meaning the weekly food bill would go down as well.

And, with that much money available per year, it is not a stretch of the imagination in any way to think that Joe could hire some help to expand his farm, upgrade his house, buy better equipment, and potentially get the equivalent of masterwork farming tools for another +2 to his checks so he can make even more money.

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Now, in closing, it should be said that the idea of them having this much money does not necessarily mean they actually ever see that much actual coin.  Joe and his family are capable of outputting 10 gp worth of produce per week, and consuming 6 gp worth of goods per week.  It is almost guaranteed that most of the food money is actually coming out of what they grow (so they grow 10 gp worth of food, then turn around and eat 6 gp worth of it every week), and that anything else they get from others in the village is in the form of barter (2 bags of potatoes for that new hoe, for example).

So, while this commoner family may not have much money, they are in no way destitute, and are quite capable of living very comfortable lives, without the need to overall the entire D&D economy just to make it more "realistic" for them.

Excellent, excellent post, Edymnion. It shines with insight and experience that is so hard to find on these boards.

Very nicely written article. I would like to add just a few comments to give even more support, by putting Joe's salary in context to item prices.

There are items in the PHB, like horses, or wagons, that have relatively high gp prices, and that don't always seem reasonable on a commoner's salary. A good work horse, tackle, bit and bridle, and a plow might cost upwards of 100g, for example.

However, 100g (a nice round number) is not completely outside of commoner Joe's funding. It is a large portion of his yearly savings, but it is not unpayable. If farmer Joe decided to spend that money on a new horse and plow, or a new wagon, etc., he would be heavily invested in them, and would probably try and take very good care that they don't get damaged. If you look at the historical lifestyle of that type of farmer, they did indeed carefully guard such things. To lose your horse would have been a heavy financial problem.

Again, well done, and thanks for breaking down the numbers. I'd never actually questioned whether D&D farmers could survive (it just never came up), but it is good to know roughly how much income a commoner makes in a week (~5g).

Oh wow. Good job. Really good job. I never thought of it in the way you describe here, but it makes perfect sense. You never cease to amaze, Edymnion.

A few points to make.

Number one, very well thought out post. You've done some excellent calculations, using the skill system already in use. A human gets +4 starting skill points, not +1, by the way, so a human commoner with Int 10 would have 2 feats and 12 skill points.

Number two, do keep in mind that not every commoner is a farmer. That's merely one type of commoner, but with a generic set of Craft and Profession skills, each granting roughly the same income for the same level of skill (however unrealistic that may be), there are any number of commoner types that could be used. So, no problem there, though the numbers don't match up to the hireling prices in the DMG.

Number three, your model assumes that the land is freely owned by the farmer (like a homesteader), and that he has no taxes to pay. Neither are likely to be true. In a feudal system (which most D&D campaign worlds are), the land is owned by the lord, and the peasants work the land for him (ostensibly), taking enough for them to live (hopefully).

That means that the farm of Joe Commoner is on the land of Lord Landbaron, and Lord Landbaron wants his share first, before the Commoners gets squat. Lord Landbaron may take a third of the proceeds, possibly even more. Out of the 500 gp annual income that your model projected, that means that 167 gp would go to Lord Landbaron. That leaves the Commoner family with about 33 gp per year in "mad money," assuming there were no problems in that year that cost them more than food and normal supplies.

Now let's look at farm animals and equipment. A wagon costs 35 gp, a cart 15 gp. A heavy horse costs 200 gp, a light one 75 gp. A mule is a bargain at 8 gp. Bit and bridle are 2 gp.

A spade or shovel is 2 gp. A miner's pick is 3 gp. I sure hope that Commoner doesn't need chain, because 10 feet of it will cost 30 gp (but he can buy a spiked chain for only 25 gp - go figure). That longbow that Billy owns cost 75 gp, and the quiver of 20 arrows is another 1 gp.

Tools don't last forever. They need to be replaced periodically. Even using the Profession skill system for income as you've done, rather than the hireling rates from the DMG, this Commoner family is going to barely get by after taxes.